Anyhoo (yes "anyway" was already taken).

Geitjie

Any guesses?

Ok, so ignore what it means and just stick with how to say it.

Well?

Guh-ite-jee?

Except ji=y in Dutch en Afrikaans*. So that makes:

Guh-ite-y

Unless the first couple of vowels are one syllable, which would make it:

Guyt-y or Gayt-y

Which is almost there. Except the consonants are wrong. Because in this case g=h (well, I think it's a -gh or -ch as in loch or Cruquiusweg), but I can only hear the aitch.

Oh, and t=k as in what is this, I don't even.

Yep, dat woord op die top is pronounced something along the lines of "hike-y".

Seriously, hiké?

You learn something new every day. Not all of it encouraging, my little treasure balls.

It's probably best not to ask why someone called me a geitjie-kind (and thank God they didn't call me "boy" instead of "child").

And the next time some American complains about "Britisher" spelling I shall refer them to Dutch (or Afrikaans).

The other options for lizard according to Google are: akkedis, hagedis & koggelmander.

The first two are the same word. Hark-at-this.

So g is h except when it's k. And the vowels are sometimes h too. And t is sometimes k. And ji is sometimes y, sometimes é and sometimes silent (the reason boy/seuntjie/zirnk would have made me cry).

Anyhoo,

* Turns out I was thinking of ij. Still reasonable to think -jie is -gee or -ee or -eye.